Why do we need a TV season? That was the provocative question that NBC's research head Allan Wurtzel posed to Bill Carter in The New York Times last week. After all, television is in business 52 weeks a year, and DVRs and the Internet have given viewers the power to set their own schedules. Logically we should treat television as a year-round, not seasonal, enterprise.

This is the week to talk about the future of media. One thing I've learned in trying to make predictions about media: The rate of change always seems to be occurring much faster than it actually is. Maybe it's because media industry professionals are immersed in early phases of technology so, just as in a car, objects in our side mirror appear closer than they actually are.